In Fallen Earth it's the little things that count.
Levelling in this game is an incremental process. There are moments when there's a sudden, noticeable jump in a character's prowess - like when you get your first real guns and suddenly the enemies are dropping a lot faster - but for the most part it's very gradual. The action points used to increase stats and skills are accrued throughout the time that passes between one level and the next, and can be spent at any time. Reaching the next level does matter, but it's not as big an event in itself as it is in many other MMOs.
The other progression that runs concurrently with character stats and combat skills is crafting. When I came back to the game it did take me a couple of hours to get back into the rhythm of levelling up crafting in this game - that is to pick up/craft anything that'll increase my gathering and crafting skills to the current limit, then only what I need (or might need) until I go up another level and increase those limits. Now that I'm back into that routine I've spent a lot of time while I've been meandering around Embry working on my crafting skills. More than I've spent doing quests really.
This mostly involves browsing through the crafting menus, working out what I can make there and then from what's already in my inventory and setting it up, then going wherever I need to go to obtain materials I don't have. The time taken to craft each item - from 60 seconds to 10 minutes or more - further encourages the slow pace, as does the travel time, since even on horseback it takes a while to get from one location to another.
It'll be an interrupted journey as well, because along the way I'll see resource nodes that wlll supply me with mats I either need now or will need later. So I'll stop, get off my horse, and spend some time gathering before mounting up again and continuing my journey toward wherever it is that I'm going. At least until I see the next cluster of nodes. There's not necessarily a lot going on then, but my crafting skills are going up all the time. I'm making progress even when it feels like I'm not actually doing much of anything at all.
It's one of the reasons Fallen Earth can be, in many ways, a very leisurely, relaxing game. It's easy to just drift along, lulled into a meditative state by the wide open spaces, the atmosphere and the music.
Too easy perhaps. More than once I've ran into a group of hostiles and not even realized it until they attacked. There is such a thing as being too relaxed.
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